PINSENT MASON’S LONDON LONDON CUP 2012

PINSENT MASONS' LONDON HANDBALL CUP 2012

Great Britain Men continue their preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games in the first Pinsent Masons’ London Handball Cup, a four nations tournament April 5 – 7th at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Tunisia, Argentina and South Korea, all qualifiers for the London 2012 Olympic Games will provide strong opposition for the GB Men’s team.

MAYESBROOK APPROACHES THE FINISHING LINE

Construction of the UK’s largest sports hall is approaching completion, with a topping out ceremony held at the new Mayesbrook Park Sports Arena in Dagenham, East London.

VIPs from Barking and Dagenham Council, as well as the developer SportHouse, the contractor Morgan Sindall and members of the design and engineering team gathered to celebrate the milestone.

The arena has been designed by LRK Associates and features a 5,000m² sports hall, a 1,000m² gymnasium and changing facilities. It is expected to be delivered on time and to budget.

“A topping out is akin to a ship naming ceremony, an age-old ritual designed to shield the ship from harm,” said Peter Jacobs, Morgan Sindall managing director. “In our case, the ceremony is about making sure athletes have a facility that offers the very best for their training needs and that Mayesbrook itself allows for many more athletes to flourish in the future.”

The British Olympic legend Daley Thompson launched the project back in May 2011, having trained at the old Mayesbrook sports club during his illustrious career. He said: “I hope young athletes from Barking and Dagenham will take advantage of the new facilities. Maybe some of them will even make it onto the Olympic podium one day.”

Mike Stimson, owner of SportHouse, said: “This is an exciting project and will leave a lasting legacy that creates opportunities for the local community, the wider community and young, aspiring sports people.”

Courtesy The Construction Index

VELUX EHF Champions League 2011/12 – Last 16 Draw

The draw has been made for the Last 16 of the VELUX EHF Champions League at the VELUX Group headquarters in Horsholm near Copenhagen, Denmark.

Each tie is over two legs taking place on 14-18 March and 21-25 March.

Füchse Berlin (GER) – HSV Hamburg (GER)

Montpellier (FRA) – FC Barcelona (ESP)

Wisla Plock (POL) – THW Kiel (GER)

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) – Atletico Madrid (ESP)

Ademar Leon (ESP) – MKB Veszprém (HUN)

Vive Targi Kielce (POL) – Cimos Koper (SLO)

Metalurg Skopje (MAC) – Zagreb (CRO)

First matches (17/18 March) Second matches (24./25 March)

IK Sävehof (SUE) – AG Copenhague (DAN)

FC Barcelona Intersport Handball Manager Xavier O’Callaghan said:
“The draw was not lucky for us and it is becoming a tradition for us to have a tough opening in the draw but these things happen and it happened last year but we won the final. If you want to be the champions you have to beat all the opponents no matter if it is at the beginning or end of the season – we will try our best to compete against a top-class team like Montpellier.

Fuchse Berlin Manager Stefan Guter said:

It’s a great success for us to reach the last 16 and we knew before the draw that we would face a very tough opponent. HSV Hamburg are one of the strongest teams in Europe who are German champions and have appeared in the VELUX EHF FINAL4 before. We and the fans will enjoy two close games.

Kadetten Schaffhausen Marketing Representative Eva-Maria Kröger said:
“I think this will be a very, very strong game for us because we are playing a former winner of the Champions League so we will see what happens.

“We hope for a win against Madrid, it will be great, but I think it is not so easy for us. The BBC Arena will have many, many spectators because Atletico Madrid are a great team and there will be over 3,000 spectators there.”

HC Metalurg General Secretary Zoran Cvetanovski said:
“This is a great moment for Macedonian handball with Metalurg making new club handball history this season. We are very much enjoying this season and I very much hope that we will get another good result.

“For sure we need a victory at home in the first leg and this season we are playing a very strong defence and are very good at our home stadium which holds 10,000 fans who give us great support and I think it will be the same in this match against Zagreb.

Reale Ademar Leon Manager José C. Ludena Montenegro said:
“We are very strong in our home matches in Leon and we had a really good Group Phase but Veszprém are a very good team.

“I think that, at this moment, Veszprém are the better team as we have some problems with injuries. Veszprém have the power at the moment for me.”

This Saturday 3rd March county teams from the North and South of England will play each other in intensive Handball competition at the Bethnal Green Academy, Tower Hamlets.

Teams from Cheshire, Merseyside, Bedfordshire and East London will compete against each other before teams from the North and South of England face each other in a full length match. The action starts at the excellent Bethnal Green Academy facility, which has seating for 200 spectators at 12.15 East London v Bedfordshire and the last match North v South begins at 3.30pm.

THIS WEEKEND’S HANDBALL PLAY-OFF MATCH’S

This weekend the stakes are raised in the Men’s National Handball League when London teams face each other in the first play-offs weekend in the South of England area. In both the first and second divisions crossover matches are taking place at Score Centre Leyton to decide the teams that will go forward to the final stages of the league.

About Handball

Whether Team Handball is played on a court, a field, or the beach, it’s a fast-paced strenuous sport that kids will love. Olympic-style Team Handball is similar to soccer, but played on a court using hands rather than feet.